September 20, 2023

Reading Time: 5 minutes

AIA New Jersey Architects Share Best Practices to Create Safer Schools

By Jeanne Perantoni, AIA; Co-chair of the AIA NJ Safe School Design Task Force

 

As the new school year begins, the New Jersey Chapter of the American Institute of Architects Safe School Design Task Force has started sharing its research and findings on best practices aimed at improving the health, safety, and welfare of NJ PK-12 schools. Initial investigations tackle four wellness topics including how a positive “School Culture and Climate” makes schools safer and more secure, how design choices strengthen “Anti-Bullying” initiatives, how “Mental Health and Wellness” features can improve learning outcomes and engage students, and how “Raising Awareness for School Safety Improvements” are linked to funding opportunities and the strengthening of community connections.

With architects being problem solvers, the Task Force’s goal is to share ideas and resources while raising awareness about the need to upgrade safety in NJ PK-12 schools. The intent is to not only protect occupants, but also create highly successful learning environments through innovative design solutions that integrate schools’ facility management systems, physical security features, and wellness practices.

 

School Culture and Climate

In the area of improving “School Culture and Climate,” a growing focus nationwide is valuing the importance of setting up interactive, inclusive, and healthy learning environments that fully support students and increase their sense of belonging to places where they are seen and heard. A design approach that closely links school buildings with their grounds helps to foster student activities, connect students to nature, and build trust about personal safety. Architects can design layouts to maximize supervisory oversight and social interactions, so students build relationships throughout their journeys.

When integrating technology into school culture, it has been found that security cameras work best when combined with adult staff intervening appropriately during incidents and providing “teachable moments”. Surveillance is effective when used as an investigative forensic tool. The next generation of innovative technologies, however, are advancing security by embedding artificial intelligence, machine learning, and video analysis devices, using digital twins (virtual models) to enhance preparedness training, and employing biometric scans to improve access control in a rapidly changing world. In addition, intelligent algorithms and AI object recognition can be added to systems to send real-time alerts, thereby shortening response times, and conveying critical information to security personnel.

 

Anti-Bullying

When it comes to reducing bullying in schools, three broad organizing principles can make a difference. Architects are trained to help districts translate the “Building Out Bullying” Checklist into action steps that will maximize visibility, optimize comfort, and improve socio-emotional competencies within classrooms designed to reduce stress, limit isolationism, and inspire children to play and explore. The design of “anti-bullying” environments also extends to selecting appropriate furnishings to increase students’ choice, mobility, and collaboration thereby enhancing their self-esteem and autonomy. By implementing and sustaining a safe and supportive school atmosphere, studies show that instances of bullying and cyberbullying decrease, while outcomes improve for those being bullied. Architects can adapt school layouts to facilitate supervision and encourage more positive interactions between staff and students to help build trust and rapport, especially during break time. In addition, schools should be equipped with areas of calm refuge, places for reflection and sensory rejuvenation, and barrier-free access to well-monitored, all-gender, and sex-separated bathrooms providing choice and inclusion.

 

Mental Health and Wellness

Promoting “Mental Health and Wellness,” starts with welcoming students at the front door with an entryway that is approachable, brightly lit, canopy-covered, and securely supervised by staff who can greet and recognize students. Architects know how to balance areas of high visibility with respite areas to create a unified campus. By designing gathering areas with seating, artwork displays, playscapes, and discovery features that are carefully aligned with the placement of security cameras, lights, gates, and buffers, school safety is maximized without sacrificing the joy and beauty of cultural expressions or community outreach. The seamless melding of complex needs is how architects make a difference – via their ability to integrate physical security into places celebrating the whole child approach to education.

Architects know how to create educational spaces that enhance mental health and well-being. This may include designing drop-in centers offering counseling and support services, filling common
areas with uplifting artwork, character-affirming messages, snack bars, and equipping sensory rooms with natural materials and biophilic features to lower stress. Designing schools as places where students want to be is vital to supporting their mental health and wellness. Stakeholders know that schools cannot solely rely on fortifications such as fences, metal detectors, or bullet-resistant glass to secure buildings. In fact, studies show this approach often has an adverse impact on students over time by retroactively increasing their perceptions of danger, fear, and psychic stress which hamper learning.

 

Architects understand the needs of districts to balance out the cry for hardening campuses with the needs of students to actively engage in their learning supported by services and pedagogues. School facilities should be centers of community and joyful, playful places. School architects need to use their creativity to devise solutions fitting in advanced-technology security systems within inspiring spaces.

Architects must render their designs flexible, sustainable, and responsive to local needs – knowing there is no “one size fits all” answer when it comes to addressing issues of safety, security, and wellness.

We look forward to continuing to share our findings so that together, with community input, we can create better and more secure schools for our children and grandchildren. Our Safe School Design Task Force has prepared “whitepapers” on a range of topics including Best Practices for Healthier Schools, how design impacts school culture and climate, combats bullying, supports mental health, and helps secure funding for safety upgrades.

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Jeanne Perantoni, AIA, ALEP, LEED AP is a Co-chair of the AIA NJ Safe School Design Task Force. She serves as Senior Principal at SSP Architects and has over 40 years of experience as an Architect and Educational Facility Planner with expertise in long-range master planning and designing PK-12 schools.

Jeanne’s Co-chair on the AIA NJ Safe School Design Task Force is Edward Rothe, FAIA, former Managing Design Partner of NJ-based Rothe-Johnson Associates and Fletcher Thompson Architecture. Ed is credited with the AIANJ Design Award-winning Bleshman Regional Day School, Paramus, NJ, for the Bergen County Specialized School District. The school, designed to educate children with multiple handicaps, features classroom “clusters” to reduce travel distances, non-institutional interior colors, warm air floors, and skylights and clear story windows to provide natural light. He is also responsible for the community-based, Highbridge Green School and Environmental Education Campus, Bronx, NY, for the NYC SCA (Schools Construction Authority). Green features include a rooftop garden, wind turbines, solar panels, a greenhouse, and a rain collection system. Ed continues to serve AIA NJ as an active emeritus member, lending decades of leadership to advance the profession. 

By Stacey Ruhle Kliesch, AIA, AIA NJ Advocacy Consultant | Posted in NJ Architect Newsletter, Women in Architecture | Tagged: #AIANJ, #aianjarchitects, #antibullying, #architects, #buildtrust, #choice, #educationalarchitecture, #EdwardNRotheFAIA, #encouragelearning, #engagestudents, #Inclusion, #jeanneperantoniaia, #K12, #learningoutcomes, #MentalHealth, #nextgen, #njschools, #PK12, #protectstudents, #providesafety, #saferschools, #safeschooldesigntaskforce, #safeschools, #SchoolArchitecture, #schoolculture, #SchoolDesign, #socialinteraction, #teachablemoments, #wellness, #womeninarchitecture, PK-12 | Comments (0)